The day before the race, after runners arrive at the camp in Frozen Head, they get to see the one official course map that denotes that year's route. But they're informed that within Frozen Head State Park, racers are allowed to train only on the trails, meaning participants can't prepare for how rough the full experience will be.

Since there's no official rulebook, nothing tells runners what they should or shouldn't do leading up to the race. Depending on how much water they bring, they may wind up drinking from streams. Runners have to carry their own food, water, lights, and other necessities with them. No GPS device of any kind is allowed on the race, nor is an altimeter - just a map, a compass, and a cheap Timex watch ticking down the 60-hour time limit. Jared Campbell, an ultrarunner, clings to a tree while scaling 'Danger Dave's Climbing Wall,' one of the many challenging ascents in the course of the 2012 Barkley Marathons.Ĭourtesy: 'The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young' And finishers experience a total of 120,000 feet of elevation change throughout the course, the equivalent of climbing and descending Mount Everest twice, according to a 2014 documentary called ' The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young.' Each of the race's five 20-mile loops is really more like 26 miles, most say. If ultramarathons are about testing human limits, a race like Barkley is about confronting the point at which people fail while facing those limits - or redefining success and failure entirely. In Barkley parlance, that's considered a 'fun run.' A runner named Gary Robbins came closest, completing three of the five loops of the course. In 2018, a year with particularly miserable course conditions, no one finished the race.

Since then, there have been only 15 finishers. The first Barkley race was held in 1986, but the course distance was bumped up to at least 100 miles - probably 130 miles, depending on who you ask - in 1989. It often indicates a user profile.įor a runner who tries to enter the Barkley Marathons, one thing is certain: They have almost no chance of finishing.

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